SDP introduces new face Surayah Akbar & veterans like James Gomez for Sembawang GRC

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) introduced their new slate of candidates for Sembawang GRC at a walkabout in Kampung Admiralty on Apr. 6.

The SDP said that they intend to contest both Sembawang GRC and Sembawang West SMC on a single combined slate, and have named several veteran campaigners as well as a new face to the team.

Notable amongst the newly introduced team are a political veteran and political scientist, James Gomez, and first-time presumptive candidate Surayah Akbar.

The Slate

After a brief introduction by the SDP’s secretary general and candidate for Sembawang West, Chee Soon Juan, the team of candidates was introduced by party chairman Paul Tambyah.

Tambyah said that the SDP had declared its intention to contest in the area in 2022 and that the party had been engaging the local community for the past two and a half years.

He introduced the new team, which consists of SDP deputy chair Bryan Lim, entrepreneur and new face Surayah Akbar, political scientist and veteran campaigner James Gomez, as well as Alfred Tan and Damanhuri Abas.

Lim was described as a political veteran who contested his first election in 2001 and is an assistant director at a Singaporean public healthcare institution.

New face Surayah Akbar

Tambyah introduced Akbar as the SDP’s “worst kept secret”.

Akbar runs her own music publishing businesses, and Tambayah described her as an “entrepreneur and a mum”. She is party treasurer of the SDP.

Speaking to Mothership, she said she has been walking the ground at Marsiling-Yew Tee for the past five years, and Sembawang for three years.

"I'm a mother myself, and I do not want to speak up only for my own family, but I feel the necessity to speak up for all Singaporeans [on] the high cost of living and also housing," she said.

Meanwhile, Tan was described as an ex-banker and “serial entrepreneur” who had “the pulse of the business environment in Singapore”.

Tan is also a veteran, having previously contested in 2015 in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.

Damanhuri Abas previously contested the 2020 general election in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

Ex-WP candidate James Gomez

Rounding out the team is James Gomez, who previously ran in Sembawang in 2011 and in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in 2020.

Gomez is a veteran political activist and has been a SDP member for nearly 15 years, having been a member of the Workers’ Party before that.

He is also a political scientist and regional director of the Asia Centre, a civil society research institute.

Committed to Singapore

Tambyah said the team had been involved in the Marsiling Yew Tee and Sembawang area over the past few years.

The team will focus not just on national issues but also tackle local issues with a ground-up approach rather than the top-down approach that the government tends to use.

Tambyah said, “None of them is going to claim to be a son (or daughter) of Sembawang”, but that they were “people that are committed to Singapore”.

He added that Singaporeans only get a chance every five years to make their voices heard at the ballot box, and that parties are not just running on the message of "we are not the PAP".

"They're running with their own vision, and that is up to the people to decide which vision is more in line with their own values and their own ideas," he said.

Top image via Mothership